“What’s MCU?” he asked. “Oh right, I have never heard that before! I thought it was Manchester United.. but don’t worry about it.”

Elba can be forgiven for not knowing the shared universe’s name given how much he’s got going on his working life. The actor has spent the last few years producing TV shows, directing period dramas and hosting documentary series, as well as doing more than a few DJ gigs in between.

The actor made his last Marvel appearance in Avengers: Infinity War having played Asgardian Heimdall in the MCU since 2011.

Elba made his debut in the first Thor movie and subsequently appeared in Thor: The Dark World, Avengers: Age of Ultron and Thor: Ragnarok.

He also seemed pretty relieved to be leaving the franchise as he described his experience filming the second Thor and Age of Ultron as “torture” and went into detail about the former film to The Telegraph.

I’m actually falling down from a spaceship, so they had to put me in harness in this green-screen studio. And in between takes I was stuck there, fake hair stuck on to my head with glue, this f—ing helmet, while they reset. And I’m thinking: ’24 hours ago, I was Mandela’…I was literally walking in this man’s boots. [Within] six months, the crew, we were all so in love with this film we had made. I was Mandela, practically. Then there I was, in this stupid harness, with this wig and this sword and these contact lenses. It ripped my heart out.

However, after working with Taika Waititi on Ragnarok it seems the actor wouldn’t mind making a return to the MCU and having a bigger role.

“I like that I have a little part in Thor,” he told Entertainment Weekly. “I’m neither movie star or day player. It allows me to do other things I love. The last one [Ragnarok] was fun. The others weren’t fun. They’re work. But on this one, Taika was great.”

“I wish I was more present in the Marvel family. I like what I have, but I also wish that I had a bigger character in the Marvel universe. It’s been great, but I kinda think I need a bit more. I want to be a superhero. I like the idea of that.”

As his character was killed off in Infinity War before the Snap, we might not see Elba back in the MCU but given how many resurrections there have been in the comics they are based on it doesn’t mean it couldn’t happen.